An extraordinary collection of papers on physical activity and public health was published last month in The Lancet . A landmark paper , which the lead author blogged about in July, made a compelling case that physical inactivity is a risk factor that is as critical in causing major chronic diseases as smoking. The papers covered the most current worldwide information on physical inactivity including prevalence and trends , determinants , effective strategies that promote physical activity, and the influence of societal trends. The final paper, positioning physical inactivity as a pandemic, is a Call to Action for making physical activity a public health priority.

With the summer Olympic Games coming up, a group of 33 researchers from 16 countries worldwide felt this was a good opportunity to call the attention of the world to the public health problem of physical inactivity. Since physical activity has so many health benefits, it is concerning that only about one-third of the world’s population is physically active.